Indonesia’s latest bird flu patient dies: hospital

JAKARTA (Reuters) – A 29-year-old Indonesian woman who had
bird flu according to a local test result has died, a hospital
spokesman said on Thursday.

Ilham Patu from Jakarta’s Sulianti Saroso hospital said the
woman died late on Wednesday after her condition worsened.
Officials had announced she was positive for bird flu only
hours earlier.

Foreign laboratories recognized by the World Health
Organization have so far confirmed 11 deaths and five other
cases in Indonesia where patients survived.

The woman’s results have been sent to a Hong Kong
laboratory.

Local tests also show a 39-year-old Indonesian man died of
bird flu earlier this month, although there has been no
confirmation yet of that result, officials said this week.

Officials at the Sulianti Saroso hospital, designated to
treat bird flu patients in Jakarta, have said the woman had
contact with dead chickens.

The H5N1 virus cannot pass easily between humans at the
moment, but experts fear it could develop that ability and set
off a global pandemic which might kill millions of people.

It has killed 76 people in Southeast Asia and China since
2003. Cases have also emerged in Turkey, the first human
infections outside East Asia.